School Dance Performance

Today I'm home recovering from the flu and wanted to put up pics from Brooke's latest school dance performance to the tunes of Shrek, Cotton-Eye-Joe, Kung-Fu-Panda, and some other Nebraska-history pioneer era songs. You can see her great enthusiasm for dancing with some of the boys...

Hot Sauce Connoisseur

Several years ago when Stewart returned from the border of Mexico in Texas as a Spanish-speaking missionary, he had embraced most Tex-Mex foods. He especially loved spicy things and could eat Tabasco sauce almost every night. I, on the other, hand, having been also in Texas, speaking very little Spanish, had grown up a Wisconsin Farmer's Daughter (O.K., it was a hobby farm, but it flows better with the song), and loved many Tex-Mex foods, but had a milder tongue. I was still taking baby steps, and thought I had made great leaps when I learned to make fajitas (without hot sauce). Well, Stewart had started a Tabasco collection in our fridge, taking up at least half a row on a shelf. He loves his little hot sauce babies, including his fiery hot ones, and has specific names for each bottle.

Stu: Could you get the salsa verde for me?
Me: The little green one?
Stu: That's the one!

Stu: Do we have any habanero?
Me: Ahh, let me check (I have to read the labels, forgetting if habanero is extra spicy).

So recently my sixth-grade ELL students and I had a belated Christmas party. It was late January, but we had missed our planned Christmas party due to a snow day on the last day before break. The students and I brought snacks and games. One of my Latina girls brought Ruffles chips and a big bottle of hot sauce. The other African and Latino/a students are all excited about her hot sauce and start pouring it all over their crackers and chips while talking about how they love hot sauce and spicy foods, too, and all about jalapenos, and different chile peppers they like, and how their parents brew up homemade hot sauce with home-grown firey vegetables. They know I have a milder tongue, but they see me smiling at them, and say I really need to try some of her hot sauce. Is it spicy? They don't think so. Ha! I have a few past experiences receiving a fire-burned tongue because of hot sauce..... I put just one minute drop on my chip (and I make sure the bottle drips very slowly) and prepare for the RED HOT tears as I take a bite.... No pain. It's pretty good. I smile, and say, "I liked it!" This girl says, "We eat hot sauce all the time and put it on everything, even fruit." Fruit? Wow. I know I've been sheltered... Maybe I will try that sometime....

Brooke's Animation

Stewart and Brooke were looking for something to do this afternoon...

Like It Is

I teach K-12 ELL (bilingual) kids. I have the polar extremes in age every day. Today I went to visit my first graders. They are notorious for telling me like it is. I had awakened later this morning, showered, and pulled my hair back in a pony tail, not my usual school-hair look. It has been a windy, cold day on the Nebraska prairie, and I have been in and out of my car and schools a few times today. One of my little students says,

S: Mrs. Brewer, why does your hair look like that?
Me: (I smile and try to swallow a laugh). It was windy. I just pulled my hair back today. Do you like it?
S: You should take a shower and fix your hair like this. (She shows me.)
Me: I did take a shower, but thanks....

Here are comments for me from other days:

S: Mrs. Brewer, why are your teeth yellow? My teeth are white.
Me: Aaah, I've been eating too much chocolate? Or if I were a polar bear, I'd eaten too many seals.

S: Mrs. Brewer, why is your tummy fat and mine isn't?
Me: Well, you look just right the way you are. (I better go to the Y tonight...)

S: Mrs. Brewer, why do you have white spots (referring to my vitiligo on my hands and arms)?
Me: Yes, I have spots - kind of like a giraffe or a Dalmation dog has spots. (She looks at me wide-eyed. Certainly, a great truth I had shared with her...)
S: Or a cow?
Me: Yes, or like a cow... (I know I should have given her my medical condition, but I think she'll relate to the animal theory better.)

NYC January 2009

Here are some pics of my trip to New York City in January, 09. The blurry look is not me being artistic, it's just my crummy phone camera.

Swim Team Pays Off

Last night Stewart, Brooke, and I went for a swim. It was sub-zero frigid weather outside, but the indoor pool was warm, and we almost had it to ourselves. After swimming a few laps with flippers, Brooke said, "Let's race (without flippers)!" So the three of us swam a 50-yard freestyle up and back. And guess who creamed us? Yeah, Stewart and I were swimming our fastest. Really, we were trying to win. I used to be able to beat Brooke. But she whomped (sp?) us and was rightly pleased about that!

Puberty

One of my middle school girls came in to my office yesterday,

S: Mrs. Brewer! This has been my worst day ever!!
Me: Worst day? In your whole life? What happened?
S: We talked about puberty in CS (Family and Consumer Science).
Me: Really? What was so awful about it? Did they talk about menstration or something?
S: No, we talked about relationships and stuff. All the boys were laughing. It was so embarrassing. I'd rather talk with my parents about it.
M: Yeah, I bet it was embarrassing.

I can remember those days. I'm thankful to NOT be in middle school any more.

"Hi" from Brooke

Bowling in Baldwin

One afternoon closer to New Year's some of us went to Baldwin, Wisconsin (a small town close to where I grew up in Spring Valley). Brooke had two strikes right off the bat. Stewart received the highest score of all of us. One of the cutest things was watching our nephew, Isaac (almost 4) bowl for one of his first times. He was thrilled to roll the ball down the alley and squealed in excitement! His ball slowly but consistently knocked pins down. By the end of the game Amy was amazed that she and Isaac had final scores that were tied! :)

Time with Grandma June

We spent a couple of days visiting Grandma June (my mom's mom) and the Polzin side near Christmas Eve.

My aunt Barb and uncle Fred gave us a tour of their new spacious home they had designed on Lake Francis in Minnesota. It replaces the cabin that had been there for many years where we had gone every summer as children - great memories with relatives, playing in the sand, water-skiing, fishing, and boating on that lake. Their new beautiful home has breath-taking views of the lake.